In
1628, William Harvey defied established beliefs with his groundbreaking paper,
"De motu cordis et sanguinis" (On the motion of the heart and blood),
asserting that the heart pumped blood in a one-way closed system from arteries
to veins. Harvey's theory, based on meticulous dissections and experiments
across various species, hinged on the crucial observation that vein valves
allowed blood to flow only toward the heart. Despite having compelling evidence
since his 1615 Lumleian Lecture, Harvey hesitated to publicize his concept
widely, as it challenged the deeply entrenched 1,400-year-old teachings of
Galen, which posited that blood was produced in the liver, flowed between heart
chambers through invisible pores, and nourished the body's organs. Harvey's
calculations showed this to be mathematically impossible.
While
Harvey enjoyed the support of Kings James I and Charles I as their court
physician, his defiance of Galen's authority sparked two decades of controversy
and opposition in Continental Europe. A missing piece in Harvey's explanation
was how blood transitioned from arteries to veins, a gap later filled by
Marcello Malpighi's confirmation of capillaries in 1661.
"De
motu cordis" now stands as the cornerstone of our understanding of the
cardiovascular system, a pivotal publication in the history of biology and
medicine. Harvey, hailed as the father of modern physiology, revolutionized
science by combining rigorous experimentation and quantification with simple
observation.
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| While practicing medicine, William Harvey, depicted in this engraving, examined four women who faced accusations of witchcraft. Despite the societal expectations to find incriminating bodily marks, he gave testimony that ultimately cleared their names. |
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